Null Zero
Member
Hi All,
I haven't had a tank for a couple of years since moving to the UK a couple of years ago. We are planning to buy a house this year, one with a big conservatory which of course will become a home to a big planted tank.
However to scratch the hobby itch in the mean time, i have been doing an 'experiment' with some moss i randomly found on the concrete part of my backyard after a spell of rain a month or so ago.
I decided to throw this piece into a small plastic container with water, the kind you get food delivered in from your local Indian restaurant, and see what happened.
I am no bryologist so i have zero idea what type of moss this is. It is clearly terrestrial considering i am miles away from any water body and the fact that it was collected from my backyard. Based on my rudimentary knowledge, I decided this was a pleurocarpus type, given the longer branching strands. This bit of moss was about 2.5 inches roughly in diameter.
I kept it by the window in my kitchen, doing nothing except changing water every couple of days. This was fully submerged, with about an inch and half of water above it in the container.
I was not expecting much, given that it was clearly terrestrial. But lo behold, it started to slowly but surely acclimatise and adopt an unusual form in a week or so. I started seeing long stringy growth coming out of the 'tuft' of moss in the water, which kinda looked like stringy moss, Leptodictyum Riparium.
This transition continued over weeks and after almost 6 weeks, I have ended up with a much bigger paych of stringy, branchy and very green looking moss that pearls like crazy every day. Looking at it, you would think i am injecting CO2.
This seems to be fully aquatic now, with a caveat. It has recently started floating a bit, which i a attribute to the heavy pearling or possibly a response to get closer to the surface and access atmospheric CO2.
To cut a long story short, my hypothesis is that many terrestrial mosses can potentially adapt to submerged conditions over time and therefore become suitable for aquarium use. Of course i admit my sample size is a grand total of one so any conclusions drawn are questionable.
Would love to hear from the more knowledgeable folks here on this little experiment.
Some pictures for your reference. Apologies for the poor quality of pictures.
I haven't had a tank for a couple of years since moving to the UK a couple of years ago. We are planning to buy a house this year, one with a big conservatory which of course will become a home to a big planted tank.
However to scratch the hobby itch in the mean time, i have been doing an 'experiment' with some moss i randomly found on the concrete part of my backyard after a spell of rain a month or so ago.
I decided to throw this piece into a small plastic container with water, the kind you get food delivered in from your local Indian restaurant, and see what happened.
I am no bryologist so i have zero idea what type of moss this is. It is clearly terrestrial considering i am miles away from any water body and the fact that it was collected from my backyard. Based on my rudimentary knowledge, I decided this was a pleurocarpus type, given the longer branching strands. This bit of moss was about 2.5 inches roughly in diameter.
I kept it by the window in my kitchen, doing nothing except changing water every couple of days. This was fully submerged, with about an inch and half of water above it in the container.
I was not expecting much, given that it was clearly terrestrial. But lo behold, it started to slowly but surely acclimatise and adopt an unusual form in a week or so. I started seeing long stringy growth coming out of the 'tuft' of moss in the water, which kinda looked like stringy moss, Leptodictyum Riparium.
This transition continued over weeks and after almost 6 weeks, I have ended up with a much bigger paych of stringy, branchy and very green looking moss that pearls like crazy every day. Looking at it, you would think i am injecting CO2.
This seems to be fully aquatic now, with a caveat. It has recently started floating a bit, which i a attribute to the heavy pearling or possibly a response to get closer to the surface and access atmospheric CO2.
To cut a long story short, my hypothesis is that many terrestrial mosses can potentially adapt to submerged conditions over time and therefore become suitable for aquarium use. Of course i admit my sample size is a grand total of one so any conclusions drawn are questionable.
Would love to hear from the more knowledgeable folks here on this little experiment.
- anyone able to identify what moss this is? For context, I live in the suburbs of Reading, Berkshire.
- is it normal for terrestrial mosses to easily adapt to aquatic conditions, even under full submergence?
- could this potentially mean that common terrestrial mosses could become suitable for aquarium use, albeit with questionable aesthetics?
Some pictures for your reference. Apologies for the poor quality of pictures.
